2. An Enlightened Stance

As Secular Pagans we believe that common sense is overrated.

Somewhere between the cold skepticism of atheism and the childish magical thinking of faith lies the rational understanding that we as human beings are dependent on our ability to believe unreasonable things in order to survive and thrive.

We hope, we wish, we visualize and fantasize, we look at the way things are and ask “why?”, we imagine things that never were and ask “why not?”.

Without the ability to internally generate unreasonable expectations, to focus on goals and ignore or minimize potential obstacles and pitfalls, to dream up something and try to make it real, there would be no breakthroughs, no stories of triumph against all odds, no exploration, no discovery, no invention… no us.

Without the ability to set aside sense and safety and comfort and self-interest in the service of loyalty or love or duty or honor or justice or mercy… there would be no heroes, no champions, no good samaritans, no charity… in essence, no humanity.